A/HRC/49/54 collaboration with other mandate holders are of critical importance in addressing this issue. The Special Rapporteur has been particularly impressed with the International Cities of Refuge Network, which has hosted more than 200 persecuted artists and writers since 2006. More initiatives to protect vulnerable artists need to be highlighted. 22. The Special Rapporteur is also looking forward to gathering examples of artistic work that promotes human rights, raises concern over specific human rights matters and explores difficult human rights issues. Highlighting art as a means of promoting human rights, and protecting the rights of those who do so, is important. 23. The rights of scientists have also been considered in the reports on the right to benefit from scientific progress and its application, 19 on the implications of patent policy for the human right to science and culture20 and on the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic on cultures and cultural rights21. However, there seems to be room for further detailed work on academic freedoms and the rights of stakeholders in relation to this mandate. The Special Rapporteur will work with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and with civil society to clarify the content of academic freedoms and the obligations of stakeholders. B. Protecting cultural rights relating to intangible culture 24. The Special Rapporteur is also committed to exploring further the benefits of protecting rights to intangible culture. The rights to one’s identity and to maintain, celebrate and develop one’s world views, values, approaches, customs, traditions and their manifestations need to be protected for the well-being, health and development of the individual, the social cohesion of the society and the evolution of civilization. Disrespect for substantial elements and violations of the above-referenced rights have had a lasting impact on several segments of the population; many indigenous communities carry the scars of such disrespect. At times, such violations have been happening under the pretext of protecting human rights or “educating” the persons whose rights were being violated. These narratives were recently used in the migration debate, where some host States claimed that migrants allegedly needed to be “educated” about the rule of law. Such policies and attitudes could be an expression of covert and insidious cultural superiority, through which the values of every other culture are ignored and despised. Historical injustices have to be addressed and disrespect for specific cultures, explicit or implicit, must end, and difficult discussions about redress for the gross violations committed have to be initiated. The collective nature and elements of cultural rights, as recognized by current standards in international law,22 are also part of the remit of the mandate. 25. At the same time, intangible culture has in some circles been mistakenly equated with traditional values, often set by elites, and overwhelmingly by male-dominated elites. A topdown approach to culture does not satisfy current standards of international law. As the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has recently noted, religious interpretations, traditional values and patriarchal social constructs are used to restrict or repress cultural expression, including the artistic freedom of women and gender non-conforming individuals. Restrictions range from prohibiting women from performing or broadcasting their performances to suppressing art and cultural productions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and gendernon-conforming people.23 26. In accordance with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, while the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and 19 20 21 22 23 See A/HRC/20/26. See A/70/279 and A/70/279/Corr.1. See A/HRC/46/34. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 21 (2009); United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which refers to the collective nature of the existence and protection of minorities. A/76/258, paras. 15, 30, 33, 37 and 59. 7